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Final Design

Finalized Concept:

As of February 9^th, the team finalized our design concept. This is the design that we will take to prototyping and testing. There are a few components not shown in this CAD drawing such as the armrests, breaks and wheel guards. The purpose of this drawing was to give the whole team a direction to head when starting the building.

Prototyping:

We contacted Home Depot and received a very generous donation from them. They supplied us with 30’ of PVC and various joints. We used these materials to replicate our CAD drawing. The purpose of the prototype was to answer some questions we had about where to position the casters and how to attach the seat.

We started by just making the frame. You can tell that we didn’t have all of the right fittings by the joints held together with duct tape. We purchased an old kids bike and attached the 16” wheels. Then we found a broken chair in the building and put the seat on it to get a perspective for what the finished design might look like.

Prototyping 2:

The next stage of the prototyping was to reinforce the initial design and get a working model. This took a few different iterations of the construction phase. We figured out how to attach the wheels and where to place them relative to where the user would sit. We added an anti-tipping device in the back and put a footplate on the front. We used some fabric and Velcro to make a platform for the seat cushion to rest on. A backrest was also added to the prototype. We had Hannah sit in the chair and she was able to ride in it which told us it would be safe for a child.

Testing:

One of our professors volunteered to let us test our prototype on his two year old. Once the child warmed up to our team and the wheelchair he seemed comfortable in the chair. With close supervision from the team he was able to drive the chair on his own. We noticed a few changes that should be made when moving to our final design. It seemed that the chair was just a little too wide for a child his size. We also realized we need to move the axle back because the chair would easily tip back and we also could shorten the front members.

Once we fixed the location of the axle we tested the prototype on a four year old. We asked him if he knew what a wheelchair was and he said he didn’t know, but as soon as he jumped (and we mean jumped) in the chair he took off. The sizing was perfect for him. He was easily able to maneuver the chair around outside on concrete and dirt.

Construction:

We started our construction on March 27^th. We bought some aluminum tubing for our frame. We had to cut our pieces to the correct lengths then prepare them for welding. We purchased our drive wheels and our caster wheels from Skyway, who gave us a great discount.

We got our wheels and quick release axles in on April 17^th. We had to make a sleeve for the axles to mount in. The next things we did were attach our front and rear caster wheels. We got our seats in from Ace Upholstery, which look great. There is still a little bit of work to be done but we are very close.